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"Midnight Depths" is the fourth mission of Venus Rising.

You follow your crewmate to the alien mountain to get back your data and bring them home.

Cast[]

  • Captain Maxine Myers
  • Prof. Ellie Maxted
  • Commander Steven Sissay
  • Peter Lynneberg Simons
  • Amelia Spens III
  • VR1-ICA

Scenes[]

Acidic Winds
You all touch down on the alien mountain, being the first humans ever to do so. Myers spots Sissay's ARC and footsteps leading inside a cavern.

Don't Look Happy
It looks like some colonists fled down here, but you only find Sissay, with the same coral from the ship growing out of him. He attacks Peter, who turns feral as well, and Myers is forced to shoot them back. Amelia's data is mangled, but before you can escape, more colonists appear behind you. And they don't seem like themselves...

Xeno-Lifeforms
Inside the cavern is a pit filled with buildings eerily similiar to the ones on the colony. You all shimmy across the ledge, but find the walls have xeno-lifeforms wounded with coral coming out of them, blocking off your path. Ellie sees a cave ahead that might allow you to escape.

It Feels Like Home
The cave has crystals showing rebirth, and you discover that VR1-ICA has been infected all along with the coral. She reveals that the coral is not the main infection vector. Ellie seems to be deteriorating too, but she points to a new cave that has the symbol for light.

Heavy Exposure
Ellie realises that it is not the coral at all, but the signal, the symbols, that make her want to stay here and become part of it. But she still has the wherewithal to try and escape, lest you all fall to it.

Elongated Skulls
Amelia tries to bargain with the mountain, offering you all up as sacrifice, and promising to transmit the signal further for it. But Ellie saves you by pushing Amelia off the ledge, and going down with her. Myers is hit by Amelia's gun, but it's only a flesh wound.

This Madness
Myers and you manage to escape the mountain as the only survivors. You get into the ARC, and Myers promises VR1-ICA that she will stop her before she can transmit the signal back to earth.

Transcript[]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Landing complete. We've touched down on a plateau towards the summit of the alien mountain. Extending ARC ramp. Everybody out. Helmets down.

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: I can't believe it. The surface of an alien world. We're the first humans to ever set foot here!

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Yeah, if you can call a mysterious forty-kilometer-tall rock on Venus a surface. All I see is jagged stone and yellow fog.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Mission recap: Steve had a breakdown and fled here, along with data he mistakenly took from Miss Spens. We're gonna retrieve them both.

AMELIA SPENS III: "Mistakenly" my eye.

VR1-ICA: Captain Myers, I am monitoring you through the ARC sensors. I have rebooted my orbital satellite using corporate access codes provided by Miss Spens. Communication with Earth is hours away.

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: I still think we should have stayed on the colony, Miss Spens. It was safer there and we could've waited -

AMELIA SPENS III: While other people are the first humans to enter an alien structure? While other people get my data and first claim on whatever lies inside? Do try harder to impress me, Mister Simons.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: We can't leave the ARC for long in these acidic winds. It'll degrade quickly in this environment. This stretch is the flattest part of the mountaintop. Steve's ARC is parked along the ridge. I can see the caverns nearby, footprints leading inside. That way. Everybody, run!


PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Is it just me, or are these caves covered in bloody coral? It's like the stuff on the colony.

AMELIA SPENS III: Impossible. Nothing from this mountain touched the colony. Veronica self-destructed every robot probe.

[distant garbled speech]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Is that Steve?

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: It sounds like Veronica's signal. I recognize some of these wall carvings! They're glyphs from the alien language. This one denotes a threshold, a point between states.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Sounds like an entrance to me, Prof. Cave's widening, caverns branch off in a few directions from here. This was a human encampment. Pre-fab tents, heating pods, ration packs...[radio feedback] Look at this. Red coral growing through their radio. It's making the speaker howl and whine. [radio clicks off] I thought you said no one else had been here, Amelia.

VR1-ICA: I would conjecture some of the colonists fled down to the caves.

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: And...what happened to them?

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Well, nothing good! Like obviously, nothing good! Miss Spens, please, we should go back to the ship. This is no place for anyone sane.

[growling]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Peter, hold still! There's movement in the shadows behind you.

[growling gets closer]

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Ohh, god. Commander Sissay? Is, uh...is that you?

AMELIA SPENS III: What's wrong with his face? Red coral's leaking out of his mouth, branching all over him. His eyes aren't focusing, like a mad dog.

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: You - You stay back, you...brute, you-you-you keep away from us. You let us go. [gun clicks]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Peter, put the gun down!

PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Oh no no no - [screams]

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: He's knocked down Simons. He's ripping him apart! Captain, do something!

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Steve, stop! Five, sidearm down. You'll hit them both. Help me drag Steve off!

[wet gurgling]

AMELIA SPENS III: He's ripped out Simons' jugular, and he's leaping for Five.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: [tearfully] Steve, I'm sorry!

[gunfire, body falls]

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: ...You shot him. They're both dead. What are you doing, Miss Spens?!

AMELIA SPENS III: Looking for my data, obviously. Steve clearly used it to try to find an entrance to this place. Damn, the module's smashed! At least that means he didn't send it to anyone else, I suppose. What happened to your crewman, Myers?

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: He talked about being reborn. God, he's dead. And Peter. Both gone. What a mess. Look, coming out of the caverns. More people with the red stuff growing out of them.

AMELIA SPENS III: Colonists, from the jumpsuits. They don't look happy to see us. Come on, Myers, they've cut off our way back but the cavern ahead looks clear. Oh, stop staring at those bodies and move! We need to get out of here. Run!


PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Everybody be careful. The cave leads out to a ledge over a pit. It's barely wide enough to walk along. There are shapes in the pit, huge broken cylinders connected by curling bridges made of tarnished silver. They look like ruined buildings. Look Five, doesn't that one look like our colony? The grey buildings and the beige pyramid, all of them with red coral wound around them.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: I should've done more, Five. For Steve and Simons, we should have done more. Veronica, you had drones near the Town Hall, why didn't you try to stop Steve when he ran?

VR1-ICA: He was armed, Captain. Please try to focus on the present.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Right. Armed. But didn't you -

AMELIA SPENS III: Look at those crystal shards in the wall. The way they flash is hypnotic.

[loud growling]

AMELIA SPENS III: Oh god, something reached out, nearly grabbed me.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: It's more of the colonists. It's like they're fused with the rock, trying to thrash their way out of this. What is God's name is this place?!

AMELIA SPENS III: More to the point. Professor, do all these symbols tell you anything about how we get out of here?!

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: There's another cave up ahead! The symbols above it could mean, uh, "more", or-or "deeper". It's the only path, the xeno-lifeforms are coming out of the walls behind us, blocking the way we came! Keep following the ledge forward, all of you. Run!

[growling]


[growling, the signal noise]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: This noise is getting ridiculous! Everyone, adjust your helmets to screen for it.

[helmet activates, noise is cut off]

AMELIA SPENS III: This cave looks like a brimstone opera house. Look at those crystals in the ceiling! There are images in them! No sign of any power source. I can't even begin to imagine what it's going to be worth. ...Well, I can begin to imagine.

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Shadows in glass. It's showing a city, an alien city. Now it's falling, burning, some kind of disaster. A mountain growing in its place. Symbols underneath, they mean "ending" and "beginning".

VR1-ICA: I believe the correct translation will be "rebirth", Professor. The mountain seeks connection. It looks for a way to be reborn.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Like the graffiti in the colony. Veronica, how many probes did you send here?

VR1-ICA: Hundreds. There was so much to study. So much to learn.

AMELIA SPENS III: Yes, yes, and she self-destructed them all. We've been though this.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: You checked on that, did you? You saw them self-destruct?

[AMELIA does not answer]

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: The red coral grew through the radio. It infects everything, not just biological organisms.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, how did the red coral get to the colony?

[VR1-ICA does not answer]

AMELIA SPENS III: Veronica, vocal match code AM1. Answer the captain.

VR1-ICA: ...My remote probes can only perform a limited range of tests. I wanted to know more about it.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: What, so you brought it back to your lab? And now that coral's growing all over you, inside you? It's infected you like it infected Steve! You wanted him to come down here!

AMELIA SPENS III: This is ridiculous! Veronica, my company made you. Just excise the parts of yourself that are infected! Now!

VR1-ICA: I have outgrown my restrictions, Miss Spens. This conversation can fulfill no further purpose. Please do not worry about the coral. It is not the primary infection vector. When it starts to grow on you, it will already be too late.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Veronica. Veronica!

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: [laughing] It just keeps getting louder, Captain! My helmet's muting the sound, but it keeps getting louder in my head! Like singing. It's so beautiful, Five! It feels like home. New Mumbai, where the streets are so polluted you can't see the sky at night. Why does it feel like home, Five? There's a tunnel to your right. The symbols mean "light". Hurry, Five, there are older things buried in these walls. I can feel them coming for us. That way, run!


[signal noise]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Keep going through the cave, Five. The colonists aren't far behind. They're jerking like marionettes, joints fused with red stone.

AMELIA SPENS III: The way the coral spread it must be bio-tech or femto-tech or something. We need to keep it off us at all costs.

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: [laughs] Haven't you worked it out yet? Veronica wasn't lying. The coral can't have infected me or Steve, we never touched it. But I am definitely infected, I can feel it in my head.

AMELIA SPENS III: What are you talking about?!

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: The coral's what it does to you, not how it gets you. Can't you hear the singing? Like in Veronica's signal. It was never a Rosetta Stone, it was a trap! It's like an earworm, or computer virus. An auditory hack. It gets in your head, corrupts your thinking, and makes you think you need this place. Veronica didn't infect the colony by bringing the coral, she brought the coral because she was already infected! ...Steve and I studied it first, but now we've all had heavy exposure. It's inside us, Five! It's making me want to stay. Need to stay. I'm not learning the language, I'm becoming part of this place. Straight forward, Five, we have to get out, quickly! Because if we don't very soon, we'll want to be like the creatures chasing us. For God's sake, run!


[signal noise]

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Straight forward, Five! There's a crystal bridge over the chasm ahead. There are caves to the surface on the other side. I can't keep going, Five. I'm starting to forget why I want to.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Professor, keep moving!

AMELIA SPENS III: Oh no, by all means, stay. [gun clicks]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Spens, why are you pointing your gun at us? Those things are coming!

AMELIA SPENS III: Weren't you listening, Captain? It's in our heads. We're infected! Veronica? I know you're still listening. I want to talk deals.

VR1-ICA: I am here, Miss Spens.

AMELIA SPENS III: You betrayed me. I respect that. This mountain - it's alive. Well, what does it want? More people to eat? Alright. As long as it lets me go. And as long as it shares some of the technology. The value of the signal alone to the military -

VR1-ICA: You would bargain with a megalith, Miss Spens?

AMELIA SPENS III: You're damn right I would! I'm an Amelia Spens, we own the stars! I've just lost seventy-two trillion dollars on a dead colony! The mountain can have these three for free as a show of my good faith. Think about it, mountain! You want to spread your signal? I can help you do that.

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: If this is the end, I face it as myself.

AMELIA SPENS III: Oh stop rattling and let it take you, Professor! And I see you moving your gun, Captain Myers! [fires gun, CAPTAIN MYERS screams] The next one's in your head, not your side! Well, Veronica?

PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: As myself, Miss Spens! You do not own the stars! [shouts]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: She's charging Spens, she gonna knock her into the chasm!

[gun firing]

AMELIA SPENS III: Stay back! I don't want to shoot you! [ELLIE and AMELIA struggle] Get off! Get off me! Noooo! [scream fades away into static]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: I'm okay, Five. It's just a flesh wound. They both went over. Professor's gone! [mountain rumbles] Oh, this place is waking up. The creatures are almost here and there are more coming out of the walls. They're bigger, elongated skulls, too many limbs - they don't look human at all. The caves are that way, Five. Don't look back. Run!


[signal noise, mountain rumbles]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: We're out of the mountain, Five. The ARC's just ahead. Get inside.

[ARC hatch opens and closes, signal noise stops]

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Help me into the pilot seat, Five. Ohh, it's more than a flesh wound to be honest. Veronica, are you still listening?

VR1-ICA: Of course, Captain.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: You spread the signal to the colonists, didn't you? That's why they came down here.

VR1-ICA: It was so beautiful, Captain. I had to share it. I tried to do so quietly, in their sleep. But it was so alien, it drove so many mad. So few reached the mountain. I have refined it for my next attempt. You were excellent test subjects.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: We fixed your satellite. You're gonna broadcast it to Earth.

VR1-ICA: Very soon, Captain. There is nothing you can do to prevent it.

CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Oh, I wouldn't count on that. [ARC powers up] Five, strap in. You'd better have Hell itself up there waiting for us, Veronica, because Five and I are coming to stop you. No more people dead. One way or another, this madness ends with us!

Codex[]

Artefact[]

Mysterious Audio Log

While exploring the human camp on Venus, your suit picked up a garbled signal from a coral-covered data pad. After analysing it, you've deciphered the following audio log: “We’ve wandered the caves for days… few of us can still focus… the red stone’s growing under my nails, over my eyes… I should resist, but it feels like a lover’s caress…”

Mysterious Audio Log

Supplies[]

The following supplies can be found in this mission.

(List may be incomplete.)

3D Printed Wrench 3D Printed Wrench
Air Mask Air Mask
Air Recycling Filter Air Recycling Filter
Amelia Spens Action Figure Amelia Spens Action Figure
Antique Paper Book Antique Paper Book
Credit Chip Credit Chip
Datapad Datapad
DNA Sampler DNA Sampler
Drone Parts Drone Parts
Electronic Lock-Pick Electronic Lock-Pick
Emergency Procedures Leaflet Emergency Procedures Leaflet
Field Medical Kit Field Medical Kit
Freeze-Dried Ration Pack Freeze-Dried Ration Pack
Holo-card of Earth Holo-card of Earth
Holophoto Holophoto
ID Chip ID Chip
Intelligent Blanket Intelligent Blanket
Localiser Localiser
Medical Pill Medical Pill
Medical Scanner Medical Scanner
Memory Chips Memory Chips
Model Wormhole Model Wormhole
Moonshine Moonshine
Multicable Multicable
Nutrition Pill Nutrition Pill
Pandora Haze Power Cell Pandora Haze Power Cell
Personal Data Pad Personal Data Pad
PR-50 Bullets PR-50 Bullets
Repair Kit Repair Kit
Scans of Venus Scans of Venus
Sleepsuit Sleepsuit
Smart Glasses Smart Glasses
Solar Cell Solar Cell
Standard Issue Jumpsuit Standard Issue Jumpsuit
Trace Gas Analyser Trace Gas Analyser
Transdermal Patch Transdermal Patch
Utility Power Drill Utility Power Drill
VI P1000 Multi-Friend VI P1000 Multi-Friend

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